[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 121 (Friday, September 5, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11151-S11154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SENATE AGENDA

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I have a few comments to make about the 
fall

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and some of the progress we have made to date, and then I plan on 
closing the Senate for the weekend. Not having had the opportunity this 
week, the first week back after our August break, I did want to comment 
a bit on the agenda.
  Over the course of the week, we have had time to have our conference, 
and I talked to the Democrat leader as well, and I think over this week 
we have made good progress. There has been not quite as much progress 
today as I would like. I am very hopeful we will make more progress on 
the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. But after discussions with our own 
conference and the leaders on the other side, I am optimistic and very 
excited about the agenda for the next several weeks and into the fall.
  Over the course of this week, we have made good progress. We have had 
seven rollcall votes. We have disposed of a number of other amendments, 
and I remain hopeful we can complete action on this bill early next 
week so we can continue with other appropriations bills.
  In addition, this week we passed several important banking reforms 
under Chairman Richard Shelby's leadership, including hospital mortgage 
insurance and the FHA mortgage commitment. I thank Senator Shelby for 
his tremendous leadership on both of these issues.
  Next week, once we complete Labor-HHS, we will go, as I mentioned, to 
other appropriations bills. Chairman Stevens this week was able to 
process all of the remaining appropriations bills. We have done three 
of the 13 bills. We are on our fourth appropriations bill. The rest of 
those bills were processed in committee and, indeed, all of them now 
are awaiting Senate action. That is why again and again, as majority 
leader, I will be encouraging our colleagues to work together and 
continue to make progress because all of this we are directed to do 
over the next 30 days. So I ask for patience, cooperation, and 
partnership so we can continue to move in the direction of completion 
of these bills.
  Next week, we will continue working with the Democrat leader on the 
commemoration we will have in this body for the anniversary of 
September 11. With all of these efforts and the accomplishments of the 
last 8 months, if you put it all together, the Senate has made steady, 
consistent progress. That is what the American people want, that is 
what the American people deserve, and that is what they expect. So I 
think we are on course.
  If we look back over the last several months at issues such as our 
jobs-and-growth package to tax relief to global concerns, such as HIV/
AIDS and the commitment we have made and the legislation we have 
passed, we see a whole range of policies that directly impact people's 
lives, at a very personal level, a very intimate level, both here at 
home and, indeed, across the globe.
  Over the August recess, I had the opportunity to spend much time in 
Africa, to be able to look firsthand at the ravages of HIV/AIDS and the 
devastation that this greatest of all humanitarian causes has inflicted 
upon a people, but also the great hope that can result and is resulting 
from the commitment of the United States of America in this regard.
  We will continue into the fall season with a very clear mission. It 
is the mission that I have stated on the floor, in our leadership 
meetings, and in our caucus: to move America forward and to do it in 
such a way that serves the cause of the freedoms that we all cherish, 
the freedoms for which we fight, the freedoms upon which this country 
was founded.
  That mission is coupled with forging a path of security in a whole 
range of fields--in military, defense of the country, and health care--
and to forge a path of strength and opportunity as reflected in my 
statement just a few minutes ago for the American dream of the people 
in the District through expanded school choice.
  As we look at this mission of moving America forward, I very quickly 
think of the issue of energy. We left before the August recess having 
passed very important legislation, the energy legislation under the 
leadership of our colleague from New Mexico, Chairman Pete Domenici. 
Little did we know that within 2 weeks of that we would have the August 
14 blackout that blanketed the Northeast and Canada and dramatically 
brought home to us, in a concrete way, the importance of that 
legislation and the importance of completing that legislation which 
addresses the issues of the energy supply, abundancy, and a more secure 
energy policy.
  Although I am not sure if they are finished now, a few hours ago the 
conference committee on energy between the House and Senate were 
meeting. Going into that meeting, I talked to Senator Domenici. He said 
how excited he is that we have an opportunity now that we have tried to 
realize in the past, an opportunity to realize something that the 
American people again deserve and expect and that will impact the lives 
of every single American in such a positive way.
  The chairman and members on the conference committee have been hard 
at work with the administration in developing a policy that is 
consistent with what we are working towards today, and that is 
solutions to the energy crisis which address everyday Americans, 
whether we look at production, consumption, or transmission of 
electricity. So as we look into the fall and project ahead, I am 
confident we will have an Energy bill on the President's desk by the 
end of the year.
  This week, there has been much discussion on the supplemental to our 
efforts in Iraq. Although we do not know what that figure from the 
White House will specifically be, it is clear, at least to my mind--and 
there will be debate and discussion and points will be made, but at the 
end of the day, we will stand behind the President and the request of 
the President of the United States, and we will provide those resources 
and provide them proudly because we must win. We will win. There is no 
question in my mind we will win, but we must be fully behind that 
effort to make sure that those freedoms, which are the very freedoms 
upon which this country was founded, are preserved for our current 
generation but also for the future.
  Our work around the world and with the world community to bring Iraq 
into that world community of nations not only advances freedoms across 
the globe but a safer and a more secure Iraq indeed makes Americans 
safer and more secure.

  We have the challenges before us, but there is no question that we 
will win that war on terrorism, that we will win those battles for 
security in Iraq, and that we will provide those appropriate resources.
  As we look at moving America forward, we started by passing a 
Medicare prescription drug bill in this body, but our full impact has 
not been felt and will not be felt until we have a final product in the 
conference report, which is currently underway. Meetings among 
colleagues have taken place this week on both sides of the aisle to 
help develop that final product in Medicare and really to develop a 
Medicare system that, for the first time in the almost 40 years of its 
existence, will offer help to people who need that help for 
prescription drug coverage.
  There is a lot of talk about: Can it be done? Is there going to be a 
backlash to it? It is going to cost too much. It is too complicated to 
do now. There is still a lot of partisanship. Some say it is going to 
get mixed up in elections. I hear all of that again and again, but this 
is a particular issue that this body has spoken on strongly and 
overwhelmingly.
  There were over 70 votes in favor of this legislation. It is 
legislation that will have an impact, again, on millions of seniors' 
lives.
  It leaves me to fairly confidently say we are going to have a bill 
that is going to be on the President's desk sometime this year--I 
cannot predict exactly when it will be--that will represent the most 
significant legislative change, and I should also add the most 
significant increase in resources applied for health care security for 
seniors and individuals with disabilities; this gets lost a lot, but a 
bill that focuses on low-income people who simply do not have the 
resources to buy what we know are very expensive drugs, lifesaving 
drugs, quality-of-life-improving drugs.
  This bill will cut the burden of prescription drugs by over half on 
people who are low income or simply have no health insurance or no 
access to those lifesaving drugs. It is a bill that will provide 
immediate relief. We are not

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talking about 5 years from now or 10 years from now but literally 
within probably around 8 to 9 months after the President signs that 
bill, every senior will have a prescription drug card that will give 
them help immediately with the purchase of those prescription drugs.
  We have a challenge. The challenge is basically to take the very best 
of the Senate bill and the very best of the House bill, bipartisan, 
bicameral, and put it together to accomplish those goals. I am 
confident we are going to be able to do that in spite of the naysayers, 
who--and I am not sure what drives it--basically say it cannot be done, 
it will not be done. I am confident it will be done. It will be 
challenging, but it will be done.
  When I think of security in Iraq and the security of our freedoms or 
energy security, it comes back to health care security because if one 
is a senior or a near senior, their greatest fear is something is going 
to happen to them or to their mom or spouse, and it is going to wreck 
their life. They are going to die, their spouse is going to die, or 
their mom is going to die because of lack of access or lack of ability 
to access that can be lifesaving.
  Looking at other areas of health care, these are all things that we 
will be addressing very directly over the coming weeks.
  There is the issue of frivolous lawsuits. People will say, well, we 
addressed this 3 months ago, or tried to address it, and therefore we 
do not need to come back to it for another 3 or 4 years. That is not 
the way we are going to approach it. We are not going to approach it 
because it is a problem that affects access to health care to people 
all over the United States of America with now 22 of the 50 States in 
what can be classified as a health care crisis because these frivolous 
lawsuits have now--maybe unlike 10 years ago--come to the point that it 
affects health care for everybody who is listening to me. Frivolous 
lawsuits are increasing in number every year--frivolous, unnecessary 
lawsuits. The lawsuits that are legitimate need to be there and there 
needs to be fair and just compensation. I am talking frivolous, 
unnecessary lawsuits which are driving up the cost of health care, 
premiums to doctors, causing doctors to leave their practices and 
causing doctors to leave certain communities and move to other States, 
thus affecting--for everybody listening--access to quality health care.

  When it gets to that level, it becomes a crisis. It is our job to 
respond. Although when we brought it to the floor 3 months ago we were 
unsuccessful in transforming the system, it will come back in the next 
several weeks. We will bring it back. Until we educate those who do not 
fully understand access and quality of care are being affected by the 
unnecessary, frivolous lawsuits--until people are fully educated, we 
will keep bringing it back and, indeed, make a difference.
  Another health care issue, although it is as much a jobs issue and an 
issue of the economy, but also health related, is asbestos. It is 
interesting because as a thoracic surgeon, a chest surgeon--which is 
what I did before coming to the Senate--when I thought of asbestos, I 
thought of a disease called mesothelioma, a disease of the chest which 
is encasement of the lung, probably one of the most difficult 
operations a thoracic surgeon can do. People think transplants are 
difficult. That is fairly straightforward compared to trying to resect 
and fix a mesothelioma of the lung, chest cavity, which is caused by 
asbestos.
  The asbestos legislation was reasonable, and the intention was to 
have adequate and fair and equitable reimbursement for asbestos-related 
disease. That is positive, that is good, and good legislation.
  The problem today is a little bit like the medical liability issue. 
We have unnecessary claims being filed. People see there is a big pot 
of money out there. We have around 600,000 people who filed claims 
because they think there is a pot of money and because the legal system 
has gone awry. They know that by filing a claim, they will be able to 
claim some of the pot of money.
  Again, like the medical liability issue, we need to, in a rational 
and balanced way, fix the system. It is a system that has gone awry 
because of certain incentives. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 
Orrin Hatch, has done a fantastic job and said let's get everybody 
together, from the left, right, Democrat, Republican, union, nonunion; 
let's all get together--business, workers, patients, consumers--and 
develop legislation, work through the committee. That is the first 
step. Now we need to take that legislation, improve it, strengthen it, 
educate this body broadly.
  People will soon realize it is health care in many ways but it is 
also a jobs and stimulus package. Since the early 1980s, 70 good-sized 
companies have gone bankrupt because of the liability that has been 
thrust upon them. Some OK, probably, but a lot not OK. A lot has been 
irrational that has been thrust upon them, and they have gone out of 
business through nothing intentional, because of the way the 
legislation is written. Of those 70 companies over the last 20 years, a 
third of them have been in just the last 2\1/2\ years.
  So the problem is getting worse as we go forward, although the 
estimates of the cost of asbestos with the runaway lawsuits vary, and 
they are very rough. I recall one figure, that over 420,000 jobs have 
disappeared because of these inequities associated with asbestos and 
the legislation that was originally written.

  It is a health issue, it is an equity issue, a fairness issue, and 
also a jobs issue. If we fix the problem, and fix it appropriately, we 
are going to have jobs actually created in the future. As people spend 
more time with this legislation, they will understand that.
  Class action litigation, although I don't know exactly when we will 
address it in the Senate, is an issue we will address on the floor of 
the Senate. Frivolous lawsuits are clogging the system. When they clog 
the system and we have this use of resources, it is dollar resources, 
it is also person power resources. When we use the resources in a 
wasteful way, we cannot use the resources in a way that is productive, 
that will help individuals in whatever realm of life. The class action 
suits have clearly gotten to that point with frivolity, the waste, the 
unnecessary suits. That is something we on this floor sometime in the 
next several weeks will address.
  If we have the frivolous lawsuits, it is obvious they clog the 
system. They stifle innovation, they stifle creativity, they cost jobs, 
and they can even endanger the lives of our fellow citizens--all of 
that, as we talk about the proposal which is before the Senate, a 
bipartisan proposal that can bring more order and efficiency to the 
system. This will become more obvious to both colleagues who do not 
focus on this and also to the American people.
  We can bring order, we can bring efficiency, and we can bring balance 
and rationality with the best use of resources to the system.
  I add that we will be able to protect Americans listening right now, 
Americans and American consumers, from unscrupulous and exploitative 
litigators who are out there in many ways grubbing for that dollar to 
take advantage of the system.
  Environmental concerns. We had the opportunity to meet with the 
President this week, and we talked about a whole range of issues, 
starting with Iraq and the security issues, moving quickly to the 
importance of jobs and the economy, and talking about several of the 
issues I mentioned, but very early coming to a range or group of 
environmental issues.
  It is very obvious that in the West, the long drought and dry timber 
have created a dangerous situation, a perilous situation. We see on 
television and hear from those Senators who represent the States, when 
you fly over the country, you foresee the mammoth fires that can start 
with just a single spark. Overnight they threaten property, threaten 
communities, and threaten lives.
  The President of the United States, President Bush, has proposed 
legislation that will reduce the danger of fire. How? By sensibly and 
rationally managing forests with a better balance of forests--
conservation on the one hand and citizen safety on the other.
  I have to mention that tax issues will likely come up in the next 
several months. People clearly on our side believe strongly we need to 
make the tax relief that the President has put on the table permanent 
so people can plan for the future, so citizens can have more money--or 
at least do not increase taxes. Citizens will have more money

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to be able to spend and invest the way they wish rather than send it to 
Washington, DC, and let Washington, DC, decide how to spend that money. 
That does give economic stimulus and creates jobs.
  We will most likely examine in the Senate, under the leadership of 
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the marriage tax penalty. Once 
again, the complexities of the Tax Code, combined with peculiarities of 
our budget laws, have created a tax, a penalty for people who are 
married. Maybe a teacher and a policeman are married and they are 
paying more if they are married than if they were not married. It does 
not make sense. People do not understand it. We know these couples have 
been unfairly taxed. We will argue that it is unfair. I hope this 
inequity that we have made some progress in addressing in the past we 
can really permanently erase.

  In the area of family--partial-birth abortion is something we have 
debated on this floor. We passed it in this body. It was vetoed by 
President Clinton in the past. We have passed it in the body, and the 
House has passed it in the past. Now we have to pull those two together 
in conference. The problem is, we can't appoint and can't fulfill 
appointment of the conferees until we have another debate on the floor 
of the Senate. I am working very hard to get that scheduled so we can 
go to conference, have a bill and send it to the President so we can 
finally, finally ban partial-birth abortion. We don't need to get into 
the issue right now, but it has been described by Members on both sides 
of the aisle as close to infanticide as you can get. Yet we still have 
not been able to come to agreement on both sides of the aisle about the 
conferees, go to conference, and send the bill to the President. We are 
going to bring this to closure sometime here in the next several weeks.
  Senator Mike DeWine from Ohio and Senator Lindsey Graham--I can't 
come to this floor without them saying, What about our Unborn Victims 
of Violence Act? It is something we debated on this floor, we made the 
case for, and now is the time for us to complete our legislative 
activity so we truly can protect unborn victims of violence.
  All of this is ambitious, but it is time to be bold and it is time to 
be ambitious. I think this body demonstrated this again for the most 
part in a bipartisan way over the last several months. But each of 
these issues that I have mentioned will be addressed on the floor of 
the Senate.
  Yesterday an event happened. Again, I don't need to rehash that 
today, but the withdrawal of Miguel Estrada's nomination yesterday was 
a tragedy. It was a sad day for this body. At the end of the day I had 
the opportunity to call and talk to Miguel Estrada, and there is just 
simply nobody to my mind who is better qualified for the position for 
which he was nominated and who was more unjustly treated by this body.
  These blocked judicial nominations are maybe the biggest challenges 
we have before us--unprecedented filibusters, unprecedented partisan 
filibusters on the floor of this Senate are unpardonable, I believe.
  We are going to stay focused. We are going to do our very best to 
educate, to break these filibusters. I think one day the consequences 
of the minority blocking highly qualified nominees without good reason 
will come home to roost.
  Other issues, reauthorization issues, and then I will close. I know 
it is late on this afternoon and we need to move on. But 
reauthorization I at least wanted to mention. There are many so I don't 
want to mention them all, but reauthorization of welfare, of the 
highway bill--again, a lot of discussion this week as we look forward 
to addressing these sorts of issues in the coming weeks.
  There are a lot of opportunities. It is a huge responsibility for 
each of us in the coming weeks. But I am absolutely confident that by 
pulling together, by working as a team, by working across the aisle, we 
will be able to advance the mission I mentioned of moving America 
forward and to do it in a way that celebrates the freedoms we all 
enjoy.
  We will be able to make meaningful progress in our Nation's economic 
life. We will be able to make meaningful progress in our Nation's moral 
life. We will be able to make meaningful progress in our Nation's civic 
life.
  We are going to have a very busy and we are going to have a very 
productive fall.

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